


The Long Night

by SerendipitousLyss



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Guilt, Light Angst, Reconciliation, Regret, Sister-Sister Relationship, and luz gets a well deserved nap, eda and lilith have a Talk, kind of. there is no forgiveness involved, like right after the end of episode 12, set post finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26314315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerendipitousLyss/pseuds/SerendipitousLyss
Summary: After returning to the Owl House from Belos's Castle, Eda and Lilith have a much-needed talk, and Eda realizes just how important her self-made family really is to her.
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda, King & Luz Noceda
Comments: 30
Kudos: 223
Collections: All things Disney





	The Long Night

**Author's Note:**

> Last week's finale had me crying, it was a really nice way to wrap up the series. I'm glad that Lilith is getting a chance to dive deeper into her potential as a character instead of being relegated to an evil antagonist, and I'm really excited to see where she goes from here, so here's what I imagine might happen after the events of the finale. Spoilers for the last episode, obviously! I hope you enjoy it c:

Eda doesn’t feel like she’s exaggerating when she thinks that these last few days have been the longest, most exhausting days she’s ever experienced. Her head hurts, her whole body aches, and she feels drained of power in a way she hasn’t felt since she was a young witch. It’s hard for her to tell if the tiredness is a result of the curse, or her nonstop last few days, or a mixture of the two.  _ Probably a mixture, _ she tells herself as she carries a passed-out Luz through the Owl House’s front door.

The poor kid had conked out almost immediately after returning to the house, before they’d even gotten the chance to go inside. It’s understandable after everything that's happened. Going head to head with the Emperor would tire out even the most powerful of witches, and Luz is only an apprentice. Eda can't begin to imagine how she must have felt.

“Is she alright?” Lilith asks from over Eda’s shoulder, a hint of concern breaking through her normally perfectly kempt facade.

Eda can't help but scowl a little in response to her sister’s voice. “She'll be fine. I know my kid, Lily, she just needs to sleep it off. She'll be back to her obnoxious self by morning,” she replies. “She's just exhausted after single-handedly taking on the most powerful witch on the Isles. Can't say I blame her.” She shuffles up the stairs, annoyed to find that Lilith continues to stick close. Too close for Eda’s liking, if the goosebumps on her arms are anything to go by. When she reaches the top of the stairs, she pauses outside of Luz’s closed door. With her arms full, she has no way of opening the door.

What she wouldn’t give to have her magic right now. Instead of potentially dropping Luz, she casts Lilith a withering glance. “Mind grabbing that for me?” she sighs, surrendering her pride momentarily.

Lilith blinks, gaze flicking from Eda to the door and back again. “Oh, of course,” she says hastily, and moves a little more quickly than is necessary to push open the bedroom door. She flashes Eda a tiny, uncertain smile.

Eda’s answering smile is tight-lipped and sour, but it's a smile nonetheless. She quickly turns away from Lilith’s unrelenting gaze and steps into the messy attic that Luz had turned into her bedroom. Moonlight shines in through the stained glass window at the other side, casting the room in a dim rainbow of color that illuminates the room just enough to navigate. Slowly and with great care, Eda makes her way over to Luz’s sleeping bag and kneels down on the ground to lay her sleeping student on top of it.

Asleep, Luz looks incredibly young and vulnerable, her mouth hanging half open and her face smoothed of frowns and wrinkles. She’s still just a kid, a teenager. How cruel was it, that she’d been forced to make such big and important decisions by herself? Frowning, Eda reaches out and smoothes her apprentice’s bangs away from her face, combing her fingers briefly through Luz’s hair. Things would be much tougher for her from now on. For all of them.

“Your apprentice was quite impressive. She held her own far better than I’d expected her to,” Lilith speaks up softly from behind, immediately breaking the mood of the moment.

Eda sighs, retracting her hand from Luz’s head and sitting back on her heels. She gathers up a discarded blanket and lays it over the sleeping girl, tucking it around her shoulders, then pushes herself to her feet and turns to address Lilith. Her sister hovers in the doorway, keeping her distance. “Of course she did. Any apprentice of mine has to be able to hold her own. I just wish she didn’t have to,” she replies curtly, her expression still stony.

To her credit, Lilith looks appropriately chastised, averting her gaze from Eda and instead focusing on the ground in front of her feet. “I understand, and I hope you understand me when I say that this was never what I intended to happen-”

“It doesn’t matter what you intended!” Eda snaps, cutting her sister off before she can say anything further. She struggles to keep her voice down, anger bubbling close to the surface. She shoots Lilith a piercing glare, and revels momentarily in the way she flinches away in response.

Lilith bites her lip and wraps her arms around herself, and Eda can’t help it, she feels a twinge of sympathy for her. After all, she’s been affected by this, too. She had, at least somewhat willingly, given up her place in Belos’s society, a society in which she’d reaped the benefits of being in a position of power and authority. Eda takes a breath and holds it for a few seconds, forcing her anger back temporarily. “Look, Lily, I get that you want to make things right,” she begins, “but it’s not that easy. You took too much from me to be able to earn my forgiveness with a few trite displays of heroics. I can see that you’re trying, though, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. For now.” She gives Lilith a pointed look.

“Of course. Thank you, Edalyn,” Lilith murmurs, and the little hopeful smile that comes to her face, tinged with a mixture of guilt and relief, makes Eda’s heart yearn for the days of their childhood, before they’d grown so far apart.

Eda casts a brief glance at Luz, still fast asleep inside her nest of blankets. “Let’s take this downstairs. We can figure out what our next move is going to be, and how we’re going to deal with… all  _ this _ .” She gestures vaguely, in an all-encompassing manner, then raises a hand to her head with a groan. “Ugh, my head hurts. I need some coffee.” She brushes past Lilith to head down the stairs, treading carefully on the squeaky steps. She doubts Luz will wake even if she were to go to the kitchen and start banging pans together as loudly as she can, but she takes the extra precaution anyway. She shuffles into the kitchen, rummaging through her cupboards for her coffee grounds.

Lilith, somewhat unsure of what to do, takes a seat on the living room couch after following her sister downstairs. Idly, the fiddles with the new grey streak in her hair, frowning. “You’re not going to sleep?” she asks.

Eda shakes her head. “No point, it’s practically morning. Besides, you and I need to talk,” she replies firmly as she works. “You have some explaining to do, and we need to figure out what to do with you now that you’re covenless. You’re gonna have a target on your back from now on, same as me.”

“I understand,” Lilith sighs, glancing down at her lap. “You can do with me what you will. It’s only fair.”

Eda raises an eyebrow at Lilith as she walks into the sitting room, a mug in each hand. “You make it sound like I’m gonna kill ya,” she snorts, though there’s very little amusement in her voice. “Relax, Lily, I’m not going to hurt you. You may have cursed me, and I  _ will _ get you back for that someday, but you’re still my sister. You’ve made some pretty stupid decisions, but you’re not a bad person. I think you’ve had enough for one day, at least, what with being kicked out of the coven, and all that.” She shrugs her shoulders, as if going from top of the food chain to wanted criminal is no big deal, and holds out one of the mugs to Lilith. “You still take your coffee with sugar?”

Eda watches the gears turn in Lilith’s head as she wrestles with her disbelief. She’d always been too easy to read. “I…” she starts, and has to pause to swallow. Eda can only guess how overwhelmed she must be feeling. Eventually, she settles on, “Yes, I do,” and accepts the mug from Eda’s outstretched hand. She takes a small sip. It’s a bit sweeter than what she prefers nowadays, much closer to the kinds of drinks she liked as a teenager. It’s both touching and guilt-inducing that Eda still remembers her childhood coffee preferences. “I thought you would’ve thrown me out of here by now,” she admits after a moment.

Eda smirks, though it’s half-hidden behind her coffee mug as she goes to take a big gulp of it. “Nah. Luz would have my head if I tried to pull a stunt like that. Besides, you took on half of my curse. You’re stuck with me until we get this mess cleaned up,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not forgiving you, not even close. But I am giving you a chance to make things right. Or at least, as right as they get.” She sets down her mug, expression turning somber. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust you again, Lilith. You’re my sister. I loved you, and you betrayed me. When things didn’t go your way, you chose to cover it up instead of taking responsibility. You hunted me for years under a false promise that someone else could fix your problems for you.”

Lilith grimaces, quickly averting her gaze from her sister. Everything she’d said is true, of course, but that doesn’t keep it from stinging.

“But,” Eda continues, “I can see that you’re finally trying to own up to it. You took on half of my curse, knowing full well what it would do to you. It’s not a solution, but it’s a start. I’m choosing to give you the benefit of the doubt because Luz and King vouched for you.  _ Do not  _ betray me again.”

Lilith nods her head, face set in determination. “Of course. I promise I won’t disappoint you,” she says.

To her surprise, Eda’s expression softens some, and she offers her sister a small but genuine smile. “Okay,” she says, as if it’s as simple as that. “In that case, I want you to stick around here for a while.”

Lilith glances up from her coffee. “Here? Are you sure about that?”

Eda nods. “It’s not like you can go back to the castle, after all. Besides, it’ll be easier to figure out how to break this stupid curse if we stick close and work together,” she replies. “Besides, you have some serious kissing up to do if you want to get on my good side again.” She punctuates her jab with a wide grin, only half-teasing. “You’ll need to update your witchling, too, and explain to her exactly what’s going on. If she saw the news, she’s bound to be confused. Best to do it sooner rather than later, too, or Luz will get to her before you do.”

Lilith stiffens immediately, eyes going wide with horror. “Amity! I completely forgot,” she groans, letting her face fall into her open hand. “With everything going on, I didn’t even consider her… she’ll be furious when she hears what I did.”

Eda chuckles; at least Lilith has no intention of trying to hide it. Not that she’d be able to if she wanted to. “I think you’re underestimating her. I dunno what she was like before she became friends with Luz, but she’s a good-hearted kid. She’ll understand. At the very least, she’s not gonna want to murder you or anything like that.”

“I’ll speak with her first thing tomorrow morning,” Lilith sighs, raising her head once more. “There’s no point in making her wait, and she’ll need to find a new teacher as soon as possible.” She’s struck with a sudden stab of guilt over the whole situation. Amity is an incredibly gifted student who’d had to work extremely hard to become the apprentice of the leader of the Emperor’s Coven. She’d have a hard time finding another teacher who could keep up with her quick rate of progress. “I hope this doesn’t interfere with her training too much. She doesn’t deserve to get wrapped up in all of this.”

“Like it or not, she’s already involved,” Eda points out. “She’s your apprentice, and a member of a very influential family. Not to mention, she’s Luz’s friend. She won’t be able to separate herself from this, so we need to keep her updated, make sure she stays safe. Someone else could try to use her against you the way you used Luz against me.” She scowls at the reminder of Luz’s kidnapping. “Which is another thing I’ll never forgive you for, by the way!” She lifts her mug to her lips to take another drink, muttering something under her breath that sounds suspiciously like, “Seriously, spikes?”

Lilith grimaces. There’s nothing she can say that could justify child endangerment. Not even her own confidence in Eda’s powers could have guaranteed that Luz would be spared. She’s lucky no real physical harm had come to Eda’s human apprentice, from her or from the Emperor--she has no doubt in her mind that Eda would not be giving her this chance if Luz had been in any way injured. The idea of having to bear the full brunt of her sister’s unbridled fury makes a shiver run down her spine. “I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t forgive me, either,” she replies softly. She could try to make excuses, blame it on the Emperor for holding Eda’s capture and subsequent healing over her head, but that wouldn’t change the fact that she’d chosen to do everything she’d done. No, there would be no begging for forgiveness over this. “You don’t ever have to forgive me, Edalyn. No one does. But I will be taking steps to make things right with the people I’ve hurt, if they’ll let me. If we… Once we find a way to heal this curse, you have every right to tell me to leave.”

“Don’t think too far ahead,” Eda snorts, setting her empty coffee mug on the table. “We’ll get to that when we get to it. For now, get some rest. Sleep, if you wanna. I’m gonna go check on Luz, make sure she’s doing alright.” She pushes herself to her feet with a grunt, then raises a hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn as Lilith watches her. “G’night, Lily.” She grabs her empty mug from the table and deposits it in the kitchen sink, then trudges back up the squeaky stairs to check on Luz. Faintly, she hears Lilith wishing her good night back.

Quietly, Eda inches Luz’s bedroom door open. It’s quiet save for the faint sound of Luz’s even breathing, and lit only by the faint light of the setting moon through the window. She sneaks her way inside, light on her feet. Luz has shifted in her sleep, curled up on her side with her knees bent and her hands jammed under her pillow. Beside her, King is curled up with his back against her stomach, fitting himself into the curve of her body like a guard dog. Smiling, Eda reaches out and strokes the soft hair of his back. “Good boy. You make sure nothing bad happens to her while she’s resting, okay?” she murmurs, mostly in jest.

Perhaps she was a bit too loud, because Luz begins to stir in response to Eda’s soft voice, blinking her eyes open lazily. “Eda? What’s wrong?” she asks, her voice unusually quiet and muddy with sleep.

Eda turns her smile to Luz, holding a finger to her lips and nodding her head to King. “Nothing’s wrong, kiddo. I just wanted to check on you,” she answers, keeping her voice at a whisper to avoid disturbing King. “Get some more sleep, Luz. You deserve it.”

Luz smiles back, a sleepy smile that makes the corners of her eyes crinkle. “M’kay. Good night, Eda. I love you,” she mumbles, closing her eyes and burrowing deeper into her blankets. She’s out again almost immediately, one hand resting against King’s side as he sleeps dutifully beside her.

Eda’s heart swells with warmth and fondness. There are very few people in her life that she’s comfortable expressing this kind of affection for, and somehow, in only a handful of weeks, Luz has managed to worm her way into her life and make herself right at home. She doesn’t regret a single thing that’s happened since she’d opted to take the human girl in. “Love you too, kiddo,” she whispers to her sleeping apprentice, the words foreign but incredibly meaningful on her tongue. She’d be lying if she said that Luz isn’t a part of her family now, as nontraditional and strange as their little group it. She hesitates to call her bond with Luz maternal, but it’s certainly something along that line. Eda would be remiss to ignore the relationship that’s formed between the two of them. When it comes down to it, there’s no mistake. 

Losing her magic was definitely worth it, if it means she can continue to see Luz’s peaceful expressions like this. She wouldn’t trade her family for all the magic in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments for me, feel free to reach out to me @serendipitouslyss on tumblr or @serenlyss on twitter.


End file.
